After the relationship between the two parties is determined, it will be much easier to cooperate in other aspects, because most of the cooperation parties basically have no objection, but the details of the cooperation between the two parties still need to be further negotiated.

However, this time, the members of the German mission were people of various professions, so they were also divided into several groups, and they started negotiations with quite a few professionals in East China on the details of various cooperation.

Of the various German claims, the most important was of course the conclusion of an alliance, which was now changed to a partnership, and the second was the hiring of naval advisers to East China. In the negotiations between the navies of the two sides, Germany also put forward the details of the advisers, mainly in two aspects: one is to help Germany design warships with excellent performance to surpass the equivalent British warships, and the other is to help Germany formulate a strategic plan for naval development, and eventually let the German Navy surpass the British Navy.

In principle, East China has agreed to send naval advisers to Germany, but how to operate the club will require further consultations. As a result, the two sides temporarily suspended the negotiations on naval cooperation and convened an executive meeting to discuss how to operate as a naval adviser to Germany, and the Admiralty was also attended by Minister Shang Jinfeng, Fleet Commander Wang Hailong, Chief of Staff Chen Xiaojiang, and Technical Minister Huang Zhe.

Shang Jinfeng first introduced the German side's request for naval advisers, and Xu Jichao said: "So the imaginary enemy of the German Navy is the British Navy. ”

Shang Jinfeng said: "It's not an imaginary enemy, but the goal of Germany's development of the navy is the British Navy. ”

Xu Jichao said: "So can we help the German Navy surpass the British Navy? Judging from the current situation, the strength of the British Navy is far stronger than the German Navy, although we have more advanced technology than the British, but now it is 1907, the first world war in the old time and space occurred in 1914, only less than 8 years, can we make the German Navy surpass the British in 8 years?"

Huang Zhe said: "I think it can be done as long as we want to. Because now the Navy has entered the era of dreadnoughts. Although the dreadnought was a revolutionary development in the history of the British-led navy, frankly speaking, I always thought that the appearance of the dreadnought was a big hole for the British Navy. ”

Ye Yanfu said with a smile: "How can you say that? I have read some information on this, doesn't it say that due to the appearance of dreadnoughts, all the warships built by various countries before this have become obsolete overnight?"

Huang Zhe said: "This statement is not wrong, but the outdated warships also include British warships. And before the advent of dreadnoughts, it was necessary to count the largest number of former dreadnoughts built by the British. Therefore, the appearance of dreadnoughts brought everyone back to the same starting line, and it was from this time that Germany had the possibility of surpassing Britain in capital ships, at least theoretically. In the pre-dreadnought era, Britain built a total of 57 dreadnoughts of various types, while the number of Germany was 24, only about 40% of Britain's, and after the appearance of dreadnoughts, by the time of the First World War, Britain built a total of 32 dreadnoughts, super-dreadnoughts, and 9 battle cruisers, while Germany built 19 dreadnoughts of all kinds, super dreadnoughts, and 6 battle cruisers, totaling more than 60% of Britain. ”

Ye Yanfu said: "Only 60%, this gap is still not small, according to the naval theory of this era, a navy can only compete head-on when it reaches seventy percent of the other navy, obviously Germany is still not good." ”

Wang Yunpeng said: "There is no way to do that, because Britain can concentrate all its national strength to develop the navy, while Germany must develop the navy and the army at the same time, and even invest more in the army than the navy." ”

Huang Zhe said: "But Germany has obviously narrowed the distance with the UK, at least see the hope of catching up with the UK, and this era has our help, even if it can't really catch up with the UK, but it can still be done to reach 7% of the UK, and our design will improve the quality of the warships built in Germany by a grade, and then give Germany a little black technology, so it is not impossible for the German Navy to defeat the British Navy in a critical naval battle." ”

Wang Jun said: "If the German Navy defeats the British Navy, it means that Germany will win the First World War, is it necessary for us to give Germany such great help?"

You Mingqian said: "I don't think there is anything wrong with helping Germany win the First World War, in the old time and space, the Entente won the First World War, and China was still the victorious country at that time, so what was the result? It was not good for China at all, but it could not even recover Shandong, which was occupied by Germany. So I think it's better to help Germany win the First World War this time and make the Allies pay for their defeat. ”

Wang Jun shook his head and said: "In the case of Beiyang ** at that time, that side won the First World War, and there was no benefit, in contrast, the Entente won the First World War, which was the best result for China at that time, anyway, it was still a victorious country, if it was on the wrong side at that time, the result would be even worse, to put it bluntly, in the final analysis, it is still hard to strike iron, and the interests must rely on their own strength to fight." ”

Jia Zhenzhao said: "Now our strength is enough, we only see how we can maximize our interests, which should be a prerequisite for how we can influence the First World War." ”

At this time, Wang Yunpeng said: "Regarding whether it will affect the trend of the First World War, ** has not yet made a decision. And it's not what we're talking about today. ”

Shang Jinfeng said: "Director Huang only explained the possibility of helping the German Navy from a technical point of view, and whether to implement it will be determined according to the national strategy. ”

Xu Jichao was a little embarrassed and said: "But now we don't have a clear decision, and it's too late to discuss the direction of World War I. ”

Xia Bohai said: "In this way, Germany's requirements for naval advisers are not divided into two aspects, the first is to help Germany design warships with excellent performance, to surpass the same British warships, this requirement should not be difficult to achieve, and it will not affect our strategic decision-making, so we can consider designing several types of warships for Germany first, of course, based on the technical level of this era, don't use black technology, this prerequisite can be done." ”

Huang Zhe nodded and said, "Of course it can be done." ”

Xia Bohai said: "That's good, let's decide first, as for helping Germany formulate a strategic plan for naval development, we still need more information, and we need to conduct a comprehensive review of the German Navy before we can start planning, so at the end of this year, or early next year, we will form a delegation to visit Germany, at that time we will conduct a comprehensive review of the German naval situation, and listen to the requirements of the German Navy, and then we can consider formulating a strategic plan for the development of the German navy." ”

Shang Jinfeng nodded and said, "This reply to the Germans should be able to prevaricate, so that it can also buy us time for a resolution." ”

Xia Bohai said: "Okay, then let's do it." ”

To provide the Germans with the design of the warship, of course, was the business of the Naval Technology Department, so after the end of the executive meeting, Huang Zhe immediately began to prepare the design plan for the Germans. At this time, the Navy's technical department had stockpiled more than 50 designs of various types of battleships, not only including all the designs of battleships in the old time and space, but also some of the plans that were only designed in the old time and space, but not implemented.

In the old plane, the first type of dreadnought built by Germany was the Nassau-class, which corresponded to the British Dreadnought and subsequent types of battleships. However, due to the lack of experience in the design of warships and the lack of technical accumulation, the design of the Nassau-class can basically be said to be a failure: in terms of power, it still uses a three-rise reciprocating steam engine, with a speed of only 19 knots; in terms of firepower, although six twin turrets are installed, the six-sided layout is adopted, and the firepower of eight guns can only be concentrated on the side side, and the caliber of the guns is only 280 mm; the only thing worthy of praise is that the battleships of this class still adhere to the tradition of German battleships to strengthen armor protection and strong damage resistance. Therefore, although the tonnage of the Nassau-class is basically similar to that of the Dreadnought, the actual combat effectiveness is only about 70% of that of the Dreadnought. This is also a norm in the old time and space, and each type of German dreadnought is slightly inferior to the British dreadnought of the same class.

The first design scheme provided by East China to Germany is: 155 meters long, 23 meters wide, 8.5 meters draft, displacement of about 20,000-22,000 tons, the ship type is still the usual pointed head and round tail shape in East China, the bow is a large slash flying shear shape, and there is a hemispherical bow nose under the waterline, and the hull section is "V" It is powered by four Kiel steam turbines jointly developed and produced by the two parties, with a total power of 22,000 horsepower, an estimated speed of 22-23 knots, and a cruising range of about 4,000-4,500 nautical miles/12 knots.

The ship's armament is as follows: 4 twin 305 mm main guns, 2 at the bow and 2 at the stern, arranged in a knapsack structure along the central axis of the hull; 12 twin 150 mm guns with 4 at the bow and stern, arranged in a figure of eight on both sides of the main gun, and two on each side of the middle hull; in addition, it is also equipped with 8 twin 100 mm guns, 8 twin 75 mm guns, and 12 50 mm rapid-fire machine guns, all of which are arranged along the side of the warship, but are not equipped.

The armor is 320 mm thick, 85 m long, 3.2 m high, and 1.2 m below the waterline, 160 mm thick for the secondary armour, 20 m for the front and rear, and 1.6 m high, 280 mm thick for the main gun turret, 120 mm thick for the secondary turret, and 90 mm thick for the other turrets; 300 mm thick for the conning tower, with 3 layers of horizontal armor, 80 mm thick for horizontal armor under the waterline, 50 mm thick for deck armor, and 30 mm thick for the middle layer.

In addition, a central fire control system jointly developed by the two sides will be installed on the ship to control the firepower of the whole ship in a unified manner, and the crew is expected to be 1,000-1,100 people.